The Pathology Core provides a comprehensive resource for human tissue-based research that takes advantage of the unique tissue resources available at the Center. Acquisition and banking of human biologic specimens to be used in studying the causes, detection, prevention and treatment of cancer has become an indelible source for supporting basic and translational cancer research in various laboratories throughout the Center. The reliability of molecular data derived from new technology platforms ultimately requires an adequate supply of optimally procured, high quality tissue specimens. The Pathology Core at MSKCC has capacity to meet this challenge and is designed as an efficient and cost-effective means to facilitate tissue use, to assist investigators with expertise in oncologic pathology and to conduct tissue-associated experimentation. The Pathology Core also serves as a national resource, as evidenced by the over 1,000 samples from multiple tumor types that have been provided to the NCI-funded Cancer Genome Atlas initiative. The Histology service within the Core facilitates selection of appropriate specimens for tissue analyses and provides basic service of cutting, dissecting and staining of fresh frozen and formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue. It includes construction of tissue microarray blocks and laser capture microdissection for isolation of pure cell populations and tumor cell enrichment. The Core Immunohistochemistry service provides automated and manual staining of optimized monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to be used in clinico-pathologic correlative studies. This service also develops protocols for new antibody characterizations by using cell lines, xenograft tissue and variety of antigen retrieval and detection systems. The services and collaborative work provided by the Pathology Core has supported the research of 116 investigators in the past year. During the past grant period the work of the Core has contributed to 1320 publications of researchers from 7 research programs.